100 Blackwater Stories
by Liberty Roth
Summary: This collection will eventually be one hundred chapters of Blackwater, which is Leah x Jake from Stephenie Meyer's Twilight. Each chapter is a different story, though some are connected. Rated T for language.
1. Chapter 1: Introduction

ONE: INTRODUCTION

Alternate title: "He Knew Her as Leah"

* * *

He first knew her when she was with Sam.

When people talked about either one of them, they always tacked the other one's name on the end. It wasn't Sam. It was Sam _and Leah. _It was never just Leah, either. It was Leah _and Sam. _

Jacob had thought it was stupid. They weren't the same person. They were two people. He hadn't understood that they were like two halves of the same whole, as cheesy as he thought that was. How could he? He had been young. Girls had just barely stopped having cooties. The Quileute boy had seen them a few times around La Push, laughing and smiling and (ew!) touching.

He knew her as a wolf, too.

She was the bitter wolf girl with her _fuck off _looks and thoughts. Always moaning about how sucky her life was, though she dared people to be sorry for her. Jake had told her to shut up. A lot. _A lot _a lot. They hadn't ever gotten along in her heartbroken, bitter harpy stage.

He knew her as a follower, too.

Leah had been nicer then. He had learned just how hurt she was, how they actually had things in common. She was actually kind of cool, then. Loyal, a person he could trust and get along with.

Now he didn't know her as Sam's, a fellow wolf, or a wolf who took his orders. She was just Leah. No, that wasn't right. She wasn't _just _anything. She was Leah, yeah. That was it.

She was Leah. He was Jacob.

They weren't Leah _and __Jacob_ or Jacob _and Leah. _But he thought they could be, some day. When he finished being sad about Nessie. When her bitterness over Sam disappeared.

There was potential. And if there was one thing Jacob Black was good with, it was potential.


	2. Chapter 2: Love

TWO: Love.

Alternate title: "Together"

* * *

"Be mine," Jake whispered in the darkness of the forest, his face illuminated by the beam of a single flashlight. His face was straight as he said it; as if he was afraid the tiniest twitch of muscle would make his face shatter to pieces.

Wordlessly, he passed the flashlight to the woman sitting across from him. Her fingers brushed his as he took it, her face as serious as his was. "Kiss me," she murmured back to him, her inky hair touching her shoulder. He couldn't believe she had let it grow out. His was a pain as it was, barely brushing his chin. Jacob thought it probably had something to do with the fact that they hardly ever had to shape shift anymore. With the vampires gone, they had just… stopped.

"I love you," he muttered once his hand was around the flashlight. His face was still for a moment, before his serious façade cracked. The eighteen-year-old's features changed, his linear mouth morphing into a grin. "Sorry, sorry. I know. Five bucks…"

He stood from his spot on the old fallen log, handing the flashlight back to Leah. The beam quivered for a moment in the passing, before she got her grip on it and it stayed true and unwavering. Kind of like Leah, he guessed. For a while she was a little unstable, but now she was true and a good… friend.

"Hurry up, I want a slushie before the convenience store closes," she complained as she watched him retrieve his wallet from his back pocket. It didn't take him long to fish out a five dollar bill. He passed it to her, sighing.

These little bets were common between them. Today they were reading off the little messages on the chalky candy hearts they had both received by the dozens, trying to see who could say more without laughing. He had lost, so Jake had been forced to surrender some money to her.

"Got your stuff?" he questioned, taking the flashlight from her as she shouldered her backpack. He could hear the metallic clink of two things colliding. "What do you even have in there?"

"Shoes, mostly," she said flatly, rolling her eyes as they started down the well-worn path to his house. "Canteens. What do you think?"

"Who goes hiking on _Valentine's Day?_" he questioned, kicking a stone out of his path. Valentine's Day… ha. It was amusing, now that he was no longer 'brooding over that girl,' as Leah had put it.

"I do," she declared. He switched the flashlight off as they got closer to his small red home. The light next to the garage door flickered on as they approached. He knew that motion-detector would come in handy. "You're the guy who wanted to come, too, freak."

"Yup," he said, not really paying attention anymore. His attention had been captured by a dark spot in the middle of the concrete floor of the garage. "Aww, man!"

Leah squinted in the darkness, her eyes not quite able to detect the inky stain. She flickered on the light, sitting on the edge of his workbench. "What are you whining about now?"

"My oil's leaking," he grumbled, producing a creeper from somewhere among the various tools and toolboxes. The boy had once sworn that there was rhyme and reason to how he organized things, but Leah couldn't detect it.

"So fix it," she suggested, poking around his garage. She picked up some tools and looked at them, before wiping her greasy hands on her already dirt-covered jeans. "You're the car lover, so you should be able to fix it, right?"

He scowled as he lay back onto the creeper, before disappearing underneath the car. Well, mostly disappeared. His legs were still visible, his holey jeans and beat-up sneakers saying hello to whoever might be watching him fix the car.

"You need new clothes," Leah observed, nudging his sneaker with her foot. "God, you look like a homeless bum."

"No, what I _need _is a three eights socket wrench," he called, his voice muffled from underneath the Rabbit. "Get it for me, would you? It should be in the green toolbox, it looks like a – "

But she had already produced it and shoved it underneath the car for him. "I gave you an extender arm, too," she called as he took the socket wrench from her. "In case it's hard to reach."

This should have surprised him. But it didn't. She was used to hanging around in his garage with Seth, so she should have picked some things up. Sometimes it was just him and her, especially now that school had started. Graduating had its perks – now he could hang out with his friends all day instead of having to go to school.

"Thanks," he called back to her, sliding out from underneath the car. He watched her lean against the car, staring off at something with her arms folded across her chest. Lean and tall, Jacob thought she could be a model. Especially now that she wasn't shape shifting as much. Her once almost too lean form had gained curves that were pretty hard to ignore when they were waving at him like that.

"What?" she questioned, her head turning after a moment. "Sorry. I was thinking."

"You looked like your brain was melting," he said, grinning as he slid the creeper back into place among some tools. "I said thanks. For the hiking thing, too. That was fun, you know?"

"Yeah," she said, shrugging in her striped jacket. Though it was February, it was still cold outside. Instead of the heavy parkas most people were wearing, the shape shifters only needed jackets or hoodies. Some of them didn't even wear those. "No problem. But you still owe me that slushie, don't try to distract me."

He grinned again, looking sheepish. "Yeah, yeah. Hurry up then, the store closes in eight minutes. I don't know if we could make it. Might have to give me my five bucks back…"

Leah laughed. It was surprisingly carefree. For Leah. "Right. We could make it. It's going to rain, too, so we'll have to beat that. We can do it. Come on. Don't tell me you've gotten lazy, Jake."

Ahh, another challenge. "Last one there has to stand in the rain for a minute," he dared, not wanting to bet anymore money. He could beat her, he was sure of it. Nobody with those curves could beat him. Though she _had_ been fast… once.

"Deal," she said, shrugging off her jacket to reveal a _Teen Wolf _shirt. He snickered as he saw it, causing her to grin. "You like?"

"It's hilarious," he said, chuckling at the irony. He opened the garage door for her, motioning for her to exit. "Start at the curb. We run to the convenience store on the count of three. Alright?"

"Right," she murmured, stretching her arms to the sky. Her shirt rose a few inches, revealing some of her dark skin. "One."

"Two," he called, shaking his legs out and cracking his neck. He spotted some ice up ahead on the asphalt, which he knew he should probably try to avoid. It wouldn't hurt if he fell, since he still healed fast, but his pride would probably end up bruised a bit.

"Three!" they both called at the same time. They ran, all laughs and smiles as they flew to the convenience store. The wind they created whipped her hair behind her, trailing like an inky marker of where she had been.

As he glanced over at her as they ran, he had a feeling she was running slower than she could for his benefit. He liked it. She didn't run in front of him or behind him, but beside him. This was how it should be. Not as an Alpha and a member of his pack, but just them, together.

He couldn't quite explain why his heart skittered like that when he that single word echoed in his mind. _Together._


	3. Chapter 3: Light

THREE: Light.

Alternate title: Murder

* * *

I hate mud. It gets everywhere and it's thick and annoying. Stupid mud. Unfortunately, when you live in a place where there is a hell of a lot of rain, you tend to get a hell of a lot of mud.

Mud is the reason that I showed up at the Clearwaters shoeless. I had originally been wearing some old pair of sneakers that my dad had dug out of my closet when I had asked for new shoes. He was always doing things like that. "You don't need any shoes," he would insist, then start going through my room. It didn't take him long to find whatever I needed. "You have some right here."

I guess I would have to either go get those old sneakers (which I had accidentally ran out of when they got stuck in mud) or tell my dad I shredded them because I phased in them. This wouldn't be that good of a lie… I had always tried to kick my shoes off before I went wolf. And I didn't phase that much anymore, either. None of us did, with the Cullens gone and all.

Being shoeless didn't bother me that much. I had ran around as a _wolf _a few years ago. Not much bothered me anymore. Especially not something as little as not having shoes.

Still. I made a mental note to go back and try to find them before I headed home.

My flashlight bobbed all over the trees around the Clearwater home as I slowed to a jog. Leah's light was off, which was weird. Normally she stayed up a long time. I'm telling you – the girl knows how to pull all nighters.

"Leah," I called quietly as I stepped near her window. Ha, I could see her bare footprints in the mud from where she had climbed into her house at night. There was even a muddy print on her windowsill. I rubbed it off with my thumb. Billy didn't care that I snuck out at night. I think he was better at understanding that even though I wasn't phasing as much anymore, I still got restless a lot. That's why Leah and I (sometimes Seth or some of the other guys, too) always went for runs every couple of nights. We ran in our human forms, since our hair had become too long to be comfortable as wolves. Leah had let hers grow down past her shoulders and mine was still kept just below my chin, so it wouldn't be fun to be a wolf with super long fur.

There was a muffled sound from inside. I pressed my forehead against her window, my eyes trying to see into her room. But my flashlight was making it hard to see anything besides my own reflection in the glass. I switched it off with a small click.

"Leah," I said again, this time louder. "I came to, uh, run." Wow. That sounded so lame. Even though it was true…. God. Lame sounding.

There was another muffled sound (which sounded like feet hitting the floor) and then her window slid open. I noticed it opened with some difficulty. Maybe I could fix that for her later. As thanks for running around with me at night. Without her, I think I would've gone crazy.

"What the hell are you talking about?" she asked sleepily, stepping away from the window so I could climb into her room. Faintly, it reminded me of climbing into another girl's window to apologize, but this time it was easier. Leah's room was on the first floor, so I didn't have to climb a tree to get into her room.

"Running," I reminded her. Why wouldn't she know what I was talking about? She had only gone on runs with me for, what? A _year?_ Maybe a little under one. "Are you on drugs?"

"Yes," she said flatly, heading back to her bed. It was only when she turned that I realized that she was in her pajamas (a 'Quileute Pride 2005' shirt and some shorts), instead of in her jeans like she normally was dressed in when I showed up. It was weird. I mean, I've always known that Leah was a _girl. _I'm not a moron or anything. But when did her legs get so freaking long and tan like that? They were always dark, but now they seemed… I don't know. I followed her, sitting on the floor beside her bed. My back rested against her mattress, my head turned away from her and her long legs. "Could I get some sleep?"

"Nope," I told her, stretching my legs out. "We're supposed to be running right now."

I heard her bed creak as she moved. "I already ran. I came home. Now I'm trying to sleep, but there's a wolf boy in my bedroom who wants to ask me questions when all I want to do is sleep."

What? When had I… oh, yeah. I remembered stretching out on my bed to wait for her, but then I had started to snore. "Well, I'm ready to run now."

"Good for you," she snorted, her hand moving to touch my hair. Well, touch wasn't exactly the right word… it was more of a yank. "I'll alert the media that His Royal Highness demands that I run with him right now."

I scowled, pulling her hand out of my hair. Placing it back onto her bed, I stretched out on my back. "It's not fun to run by yourself. You should've woken me up."

"I didn't run by myself," she said with a yawn, her bed creaking again. "I ran with Embry."

Embry.

I would kill him.


	4. Chapter 4: Dark

FOUR: Dark.

Alternate title: Stumbling Into You

OMG IT'S SO FREAKING LONG. SIX PAGES IN WORD. YOU'D BETTER ENJOY IT.

* * *

I'd always been good at fixing things. Cars were my specialty, though I was also good at fixing little things around the house. Most of the time my dad, Billy, took care of some things. Radios, televisions, stuff like that. Sometimes he couldn't reach something to fix it, so I was the one who had to replace light bulbs or fix ceiling fans when they somehow got off balance and threatened to chop off the heads of visitors.

"The porch light's out," Billy announced quietly as he rolled his chair next to the sofa. We usually sat at our table to eat, but tonight there was some game on. Mariners, I thought. Who knew. While I liked watching the occasional game, I wasn't a huge fan like my dad. "Awfully dark out there."

I glanced out our front window, since the curtains were drawn back. I was expecting one of my friends to come by and bail me out of the game-fest with my dad, so I had left them open. Duh. It's not that I didn't like the games, but… lately things had been different with my dad. He talked about the Cullens leaving and blah blah and it got awkward. I didn't want to think about them. Ever.

"Yup," I agreed, going back to my hamburger. "Someone should fix it."

"When you're done, mind getting another bulb and replacing it?" Billy questioned. He's not really big on _do what I say _like other dads. I knew this was about as order-y as he could ever get.

"Sure," I mumbled, a piece of hamburger bun falling from my mouth. To my surprise, as I started in on my second one, I felt… full. Huh. I guess when you stop shape shifting as much, your appetite goes away? Who knew. "I'll go do it now. I think Embry's gonna come over here and I think he'd appreciate a porch light."

Billy nodded, his eyes glued on the television screen. I sighed as I took my plate into the kitchen, dumping the rest of my burger into the trash can before I set my plate in the sink. The light bulbs were hidden away in a top cabinet (how the hell had they gotten there? _I _sure didn't put them there.) so I had to climb onto the laminate counter top to fetch them.

"Hey Jake! Bring me another Coke, would you?"

I scowled as one of the light bulbs slipped between my fingers, heading towards the hard tile of our little kitchen. It was a few inches from the floor when I caught it, my breath in my chest. Heh. Sometimes werewolf reflexes still come in handy.

Pulling open one of the lower cabinets, I pulled a Coca Cola out with the hand that didn't have the light bulb in it. It was warm, the way my dad and I drank them most of the time. It wasn't that our humming refrigerator didn't do the job; it was the fact that we were both too lazy to put the red cube into the fridge every week when we bought another one.

I handed the Coke to my dad as I passed by him. His eyes were glued to the television. As I wrenched open the front door, I caught him trying to drink the soda without opening it first. Haha. Football distracted him, I guessed.

"Holy shit," I scowled as I squinted up in the direction that I assumed the porch light was in. It _was _dark out there without a light. The street light flickered and loaned an amber glow to the black pavement, but it didn't even touch our front porch since our house was further back on the lot.

I headed back inside to grab the step stool that I kept below the sink. Billy was still engrossed in the game, though at least he had learned to _open _the Coke before attempting to drink it.

The stool, though it was cracked and plastic, still served me well in its humbleness. I placed it on the ground and stepped onto it. For a moment I was worried it might finally break, but it held. Good stool.

It turns out changing a light bulb in the dark isn't very easy. I had to do it by feel, which isn't fun. I had to poke around some cobwebs first to even get to the place where the old burnt out light bulb was at.

It turns out changing a light bulb in the dark isn't very easy when a person runs into you, either.

Someone knocked into my shoulder, sending me tumbling from the blue stool. Luckily, the burnt out light bulb landed in the grass. Not so luckily, my hand landed on top of it. With a sickening crushing sound, the bulb was pulverized beneath my palm. I didn't feel any pain when the glass lodged itself in my skin, but I sure could feel the warm blood oozing.

"Shit!"

Huh. That was weird. I said it, but it sounded like I had an echo… one that was a girl?

"Leah?" I spoke more sharply than I intended to, my annoyance at the glass that I assumed was in my hand threading itself into my voice. "What are you doing?"

"Seth was grounded, so he told me to come save you."

Her voice sounded strange. Like it was straining. I imagined her sitting on her ass with her teeth clenched together. "Are you alright?"

She laughed, her voice sounding closer. "Uh, yeah. Can I borrow your kit? I didn't bring mine. Didn't think I'd be needing it." Our 'kits' were small shoeboxes that Leah's mom had put together for us. Sue had stashed some sutures in it, some braces, stuff like that. Though we still healed faster than humans, our super fast healing ability had diminished so we needed braces sometimes.

"Sure," I said, slowly rising to my feet. I had no idea where the new light bulb had landed. I'd have to come out with a flash light later and find it before someone could step on it. Or roll over it, in my dad's case.

The front door opened. At first I thought it was Billy, maybe curious to see what was with all of the cussing outside. But I could see Leah's silhouette in the light that came flooding outside. Even though she looked annoyed (which was the expression she took on when she was hurt) she still looked… nice. I don't know. Leah has a way to look nice no matter what she wears. I never know how she does it. Even if she's wearing ratty old jeans she still manages to look… pretty?

"Sorry," she said quietly, nudging something with her sneaker. My eyes trailed down her tan leg to rest on the broken remnants of the blue stool. I had no idea how the plastic had managed to finally snap, but I couldn't say I was surprised.

"You broke my stool," I accused, teasing like I always did. "That cost me three ninety-nine!"

"You broke my finger," Leah said with a roll of her eyes. She held up her right hand, which looked a little worse for wear. Saying it mildly, I mean. It was all crooked and… broken. Shut up, I can't describe broken bones. "That cost me years of growing!"

I snorted, stepping into the house after her.

"Hey, Billy," Leah said, sounding surprisingly cheerful. "I came to steal Jake. Need him?"

"Hey," my dad answered, distracted. He paused for a moment, before his eyes swept over us. "Go ahead. What happened to you two?"

Leah shrugged. "You should fix your porch light. It's dangerous."

"Oh."

Just like that, my dad went back to his game. Leah and I rolled our eyes at exactly the same time, before heading towards my room. I kept my kit there, since it was handy in case I needed to wriggle out of my small window.

"Why don't you fix your lights in the day time like a normal person?" She sat down on my bed, watching me as I pulled the kit from the top of my dresser. First I handed her the smallest brace that would make her finger heal straight, then I began to pull out the chunks of broken light bulb.

I rolled my eyes at her. "You can't tell if a light is out in the day time."

"Touch it," she suggested, scowling slightly as she touched her finger. Now that I think about it… it's kind of crazy how used we all are to broken bones. You'd think a couple of teenagers (especially a teenage _girl_) would cry over something like snapped bones. I guess not.

She looked away as she tried to set her finger. Leah had never been very good at setting bones. Usually we made Emily do it, since she was the one who was good at all the medical stuff. Now that Emily and Sam had moved, though, there was no one to set it for her. Even Dr. … _Cullen_ wasn't there.

"Do you want help with that?"

Leah looked over at me, startled by my offer. "What?"

"Do you want help with that?" I asked slowly, nodding towards her finger. Leah released her grasp on it, shrugging as if to tell me that it didn't matter. We both knew it was as close to a beg for help that I would get.

I moved from where I had been standing over my trash can to kneel next to my bed. Her legs (no, her _bare _legs) were hanging off of my bed, her sneakers gently touching the floor.

This was weird. I knew Leah was a girl. I knew we had gotten a lot closer since the Cullens had left. I _knew _that she was one of the few people I could trust. I _knew _that she smelled like strawberry shampoo and I_ knew_ that she put buttercream lotion on her legs after she shaved her legs with a pink Bic.

Not that I went through her shower.

I could feel my cheeks flush. Stupid thoughts of showers and buttercream and strawberries. There was no reason for me to be _blushing _like a _dork _when I was trying to set her _finger _straight!

"You okay?" her voice was low and quiet as she gazed down at me.

How do girls do that? How do they manage to make their hair (in this case, said hair was thick, black, and shoulder-length) hang down to perfectly frame their face? My hair had never done that back when it was long… and when I checked myself in the mirror every morning, it sure as hell didn't make me want to make out with myself. But now I kind of wanted to kiss Leah, just because of her _hair._

I would settle with a chaste kiss. Maybe a peck on the cheek. Hell, I'd probably settle for holding her hand…

"Finished," I announced once I had set her finger and taped a brace to it. It would probably be good as new the next day. The only time someone hadn't healed in a day was that time that Embry broke his leg. That had taken about… _two _days.

"Thanks."

Leah's voice sounded… not like Leah. It reminded me of something – no, wait, it reminded me of _someone. _But I couldn't place who. Moving to sit next to her on my bed, I picked up her hand gingerly. "Let me make sure it's good."

That seemed like a good excuse, I thought. Not as smooth as it could be, but hey. I hadn't any time to come up with anything better.

Leah laughed suddenly. "Don't lie, Jacob Black. You just want to hold my hand."

I stopped. I _knew _she was teasing. I _knew _that she was just messing around, just trying to get the conversation to go back to something that felt relatively normal. But there was no turning back, not anymore. I couldn't pretend that I didn't like her.

"So what if I do, Leah Clearwater?" I asked her, tilting my head to look at her.

She scowled, smacking me on the shoulder with her good hand. "At least now you're admitting it. No more denial or anything. This is the first step towards regaining your sanity."

I laughed, shaking my head. "Sanity? Why am I crazy?"

Leah grinned, shrugging. "You're a _shape-shifter_, Jake. You have to be a little bit crazy to be able to phase."

I didn't know how she did that, either. She had managed to turn the conversation from holding her hand to shape-shifting. I had to admire her for the smooth transition.

"I don't have to be crazy to hold your hand, though," I said finally, unable to come up with something cooler to say. Whatever. You win some, you lose some, right?

"Right," she answered, grinning as she looked over at me.

It finally dawned who her tone of voice reminded me of.

It reminded me of Emily when she was talking to Sam.

That was all I needed. That _Emily and Sam _connection was all it took to push me over the edge. My free hand reached up to catch her cheek, my palm against her skin. I leaned in, my lips pressing tightly to hers before I could loose the nerve.

_Like Emily and Sam, _I thought briefly as it registered in my mind that Leah was softly, hesitantly kissing me back. It looked like she wasn't sure if she should be kissing me. A moment later, though, Leah seemed to give up on the idea of pulling some logic from her brain.

As she kissed me back, another side of my brain spoke up. _No, not like Emily and Sam. Like Leah and Jacob._


	5. Chapter 5: Rot

FIVE: Rot.

Alternate title: The Most Disgusting Thing

Hmm. I heart Seth, so you get some Sethiness in here, too.

* * *

"That is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen." The words slipped from Seth Clearwater's mouth with a low whistle as he gazed up an age-twisted tree. It was covered in mosses and lichens, the only green color splashed upon the nearly-dead tree. While the other trees around it had blossomed into spring with a healthy bright green color, it had decided to stay in winter slumber for a while longer, apparently.

Leah snorted from where she looked up at the tree, her fingers twined around the black straps of her backpack. "No, it it's not. You just haven't seen yourself in the morning," she informed him, heaving her backpack off of her shoulders. It was a surprisingly large backpack for such a surprisingly lean girl.

"Shut up," Seth called to her, scowling as he went to touch the tree. "I'm not nearly as ugly as you are in the morning."

She frowned, considering this. "True," she admitted after a moment with a grin. The dark-skinned woman turned to the twenty-year-old man next to her. "But Jake's the ugliest of us all in the morning."

Jacob rolled his eyes at her comment. "And you know this cause you're at my house in the morning _all the time_, Leah," he said sarcastically. Seth snorted as he started to climb the old tree, frowning as a branch groaned underneath his weight.

"If you climb that, you're an idiot," the woman said flatly, frowning as her brother still persisted to attempt to hoist himself higher. "It's all rotten and dead. Why do you think it doesn't have any leaves on it?"

"Nah, it has moss and stuff on it. They live off the trees, right?" he asked, pausing as he thought about it. "Or are those the parasite things?"

Jake laughed, picking up Leah's backpack. "You need to stop skipping school, you're turning into a freaking idiot," he ordered, before nodding his head at Leah. "Come on. Let's leave him here and find a better tree to climb."

She took the backpack from him, situating it over her tan bare shoulders. "Yeah. Don't go too far, though – I don't wanna miss the cracking sound when he falls and breaks his head," she said lightly. Jake knew her too well to know that there was a different meaning to her words. Though Leah liked to act like she didn't care, her words actually meant, 'Don't go too far in case he gets hurt.' Jacob was good at picking up her hidden meanings. He liked to use them, too.

He remembered when Nessie moved away as they walked down a sloping hill of mud and twigs.

"It's fine," he had assured his pack members a few days after it had happened. "I'm fine. I promise. I'm okay." Their looks had assured him that they didn't quite believe him. So the majority of the pack had spent the next few weeks making light-hearted, forced conversation, like they were concerned that the littlest mention of anything from _diamonds _to _snow _would set him off into an emotional whirlwind.

The only two pack members that were the exception to this were Leah and her brother. Seth was far too happy-go-lucky to let Jake slip into an era of self-loathing, so the day after the 'I'm fine' meeting, the two Clearwater siblings had shown up on his doorstep.

"Hey, Jake," Seth had said brightly, obviously oblivious to the fact that Jake was cursing under his breath at the hour that they had woken him up. "Ready to go?"

A few more curse words had slipped out of his mouth before he had responded. "What are you talking about?"

"Fishing," Leah clarified, motioning to a tackle box that she had in one hand. "We have some cheap collapsible poles, freshly bought a few weeks ago. You ready to go or what?"

He had stared at them, wondering why they were doing this to him. He didn't remember signing up to intrude on some sister-brother fishing trip. A million questions buzzed through his head. Oddly enough, though, not one of them had to do with Nessie or the Cullens. It was a nice change.

So he had spent his day catching fish from a river, while Leah and Seth fished him out of the era of sadness he had started to surrender to.

"Jake? Would you stop ignoring me?"

He blinked, looking up from the muddy ground that his eyes had been trained on. "What?" he asked, before slipping into a grin. "Sorry, Leah, didn't mean to ignore you… what'd you say?"

"I asked you if this looked okay," she said again, clearing her throat after she spoke. He frowned, his mind moving slower. So the woman laughed, before clarifying. "This tree. For climbing…?"

Tree. Oh, right. He nodded, before he actually stopped to survey the tree. It was a tall one, with plenty of branches. Not _too _many, though, as they both liked a challenge. They liked to have to stretch to reach a branch. Leah didn't want anything handed to her, that was for sure. "Looks okay."

She shrugged off her backpack a second time, nodding. Leah stopped to pull the band from her hair, letting her inky strands escape down to her shoulders. "Your hair is long," Jacob blurted out for some reason.

A surprised, yet amused expression was resting on her features. "Yeah? Well, I haven't cut it in a long time. It used to be a pain, you know? But, you know… _now _it's not," Leah explained, pulling her hair back into a less-messy ponytail as she began to climb the tree.

He started after her a moment later, letting her long legs disappear out of sight before beginning. "Yeah," he said thoughtfully. "Now that the Cullens are gone and we aren't changing, you mean?"

There was a moment of silence. _He said their names, _she couldn't help but think. She tried not to miss a beat in their conversation, but he had caught her by surprise. "Yeah," she clarified, clearing her throat. "That's what I meant. Are you okay with that?"

He frowned, not quite understanding. "Okay with what? Not changing? Yeah, it's kind of a nice change. Or do you mean your long hair? Cause, er, I think it looks nice, so – "

"No, no," she interrupted, reaching for a thicker branch. "I meant the Cullens. Moving. Are you okay with _that?_" And here was another example of Leah's special way of hiding meanings. It had been a few years since Nessie had left and she was wondering if Jacob was finally starting to be okay with it.

"Uhhh, yeah," he said. It felt good to talk, to say what he actually meant. Weird, but… nice? God, he didn't know how to explain it. "I… I don't know. I'm okay with it, I guess. I mean, what am I going to do? Go after her? Two years later? Don't think so…"

Leah nodded, taking his trailing off as a sign that he was done with talking. For now, anyway. Maybe someday she'd get the full story of what had happened. All Sam had said was that 'the Cullens left. They're not coming back.' After their strange looks, he had added, 'Nessie, too.'

They climbed in silence for a few more minutes. It wasn't an uncomfortable one, just… silence. They were both thinking over what had (and had not) been said. Finally, Leah broke the silence.

"You think my hair looks nice?" she asked with a laugh, looking down at him from her higher position on the tree. Leah stopped climbing, instead choosing to sit on a sturdy branch and wait for Jacob to catch up with her.

He laughed, too, a weird sensation growing in his stomach. "Yeah," he said awkwardly, taking his time with the task of climbing up to her. Finally, he reached her. Jake didn't sit on her branch – he stopped to stand on one a foot or two below it. With her sitting and him standing, they were nearly the same height. "It looked nice when it was short, too, but I like it better now."

"Oh," she said, pursing her lips as she thought about what he had said. "Thanks. Seth says it makes me look like Emily." Leah laughed at the absurdity; she didn't think she looked like her cousin at all.

Jacob studied her, drawing up an image of Emily in his mind. They had the same hair color, the same hair texture… it was very shiny. He imagined if he touched it, it'd be soft as well.

"What are you looking at me like that for?" she asked him suspiciously. He smiled, shrugging as he joined her on her branch.

"I don't think you look like Emily," he answered her, before hesitating. "I know you're cousins, but you don't look alike at all… you're both – "

He stopped speaking, his eyes going wide as he heard a splintering noise. It wasn't his imagination, either; Leah's head snapped in the direction that the noises were coming from. If he strained, he could hear more thuds and finally a louder one. Then, silence.

"What was – " Jake began to ask, but Leah was already starting to climb down from her spot on the branch.

"Seth," she whispered, a look of horror on her face as she started to bolt down the branches. He wasn't far behind her, his foot replacing hers as soon as it lifted from a branch. The pair tore down the branches, their breaths hitched as they frantically tried to reach Seth and whatever had caused the noise.

About halfway down from the tall tree, Leah slipped. Her hiking boot skidded off of a wet branch and her heart lurched in her chest. She was going to fall, she could feel her balance leaving her and her breath frozen and –

Jake's arm slipped around her waist, strong as it hoisted her back up so she could regain her footing. "Careful," his breath in her ear reminded her. She took it slower after that (though she was still going down faster than was probably smart), allowing Jacob to pass her in their descent down the tree.

He hesitated about thirty feet from the ground, perched on the balls of his feet. "Jake, don't be stupid, don't – " Leah started to yell at him, only a few branches higher than he was. But, he tipped forward and jumped anyway. He landed gracefully enough; evidently there was enough werewolf left in him to be able to do stupid things like that and live.

_If he hurt himself, I'll kill him, _Leah promised, quickening her pace down the tree. Jacob yelled up at her, something she didn't quite catch. "What?!" she called down, pausing. But her mind screamed at her. _Don't stop, Leah! Seth! Help him! Go faster!_ She continued to go down the branches.

"Jump! I'll catch you!" Jake promised, holding out his arms. "It'll save time! Jump, Leah, trust me!" Trust him? Trust him to catch her when she was still nearly thirty five feet up in the air? He had survived, but if he didn't catch her, she would land on her back and how stupid would she be to put her trust in –

Leah jumped, forcing her eyes to stay open and her mouth to stay closed as the tree whooshed past her. The fall lasted a fraction of a second – soon Leah found herself in Jacob's arms.

"Thanks," she managed breathlessly as he sat her on the ground. He simply nodded, grabbing her hand and pulling her along with him as he started to run up the path they had made coming to the tree.

In a few minutes, Seth came into view. He was underneath the tree, gritting his teeth as he clutched his arm. The wrist was bent at an odd angle, clearly broken.

"Seth!" Jacob yelled, releasing her hand to instead sprint over to him. How he had enough energy to sprint those last fifty feet, Leah didn't know, but he did it somehow.

"You idiot, what the hell were you thinking, going up a tree like that!" Leah scolded, but she skidded to a stop beside her brother, clearly distraught at the sight of her brother's broken wrist. "We have to go to a hospital."

Hospitals normally weren't the place for werewolves. Their high fevers caused trouble all the time, but thanks to the Cullens moving away, they could go to the doctor. Or, in this case, the emergency room.

The trip there was not fun. They had to walk out of the forest, the whole time with Seth's background noise of, 'It's fine, you guys, and I'm not a baby!' Jacob just let his lips press together, wondering if that was how he had sounded when Nessie left. He had lied better than _that_, right?

Once in Jacob's car, Seth's complaining hadn't ceased. "You guys are lame, just let me go to the doctor tomorrow, I don't need to go to the freaking emergency room!" He continued to whine even as his sister and his friend dragged him out of the Rabbit and into the emergency room.

"Just shut up and let them fix it," Leah scolded as he was pulled into a treatment room. To set the bone or something, she had heard them say, but she wasn't listening. She looked down at the forms they had forced upon her, wanting to know his birthday and his social security number.

"That was a fun trip," Jacob said half-heartedly, offering a smile to try and ease her tense face.

It worked. She laughed slightly, sitting down in one of the plastic chairs lined up against a wall in the waiting room. Jacob joined her, sitting in a matching one next to her. "Yeah, fun," she said, starting to fill out the forms. "Fun like smallpox."

He snorted, absently picking up one of the magazines they had on their tables. _Sexually Transmitted Diseases Weekly. _Awesome. He set it down, opting to read the _Car and Driver _next to it, instead. He was absorbed in an article about the pros and cons of foreign cars, until the hairs on his neck rose.

He tore his eyes away from the magazine and they instead settled onto Leah, who was looking at him with an odd expression on her face.

"What are you looking at me like that for?" he asked with a grin spreading across his face as he teased. She didn't smile in return, causing his to vanish rather quickly. "Did I do something?"

"No," she said quickly, before setting the clipboard on her lap and the pen on top of the half-finished forms. "I mean, yes. Thank you."

He frowned. "Why are you thanking me?" he asked, his magazine being set down onto his knees. "For the Seth thing?"

She nodded, biting her lip. "Yeah. I mean, you didn't have to _jump _from the tree or anything. Which reminds me – thanks for, um, catching me. And when I slipped, thanks for that, too, I really thought that I was – "

He rolled his eyes at her. "Don't be stupid," he ordered, turning so that he faced her in the chair. "I wasn't going to let you fall. You should know that."

She laughed slightly, looking down at her papers with her cheeks looking pink. "Thanks, Jacob, for calling me stupid. Just what I wanted to hear. Thanks. You jackass."

He rolled his eyes _again, _catching her arm and making her face him. "I said _don't _be stupid, stupid. I didn't say you _were_. Cause you're not."

"Yeah? What am I, then? I was stupid enough to let Seth climb that tree, stupid enough to leave him, stupid enough to actually trust him to not kill himself – "

Jacob didn't roll his eyes again. No, she wouldn't believe him if he just flat out told her that she wasn't stupid for doing that. So he leaned in, gently touching his lips to hers. They stayed there for a good ten seconds, before he pulled away slowly from her.

Honestly, he was expecting her to frown and punch him or something. What he _wasn't _expecting her to do was simply gaze at him for a moment, before quickly pressing her lips to his again. This time, the kiss wasn't a mere ten seconds.

In fact, by the time Seth had his arm fixed, he had to clear his throat to pull the two apart.

"That is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen," he declared flatly, his wrist in a cast as he mimed puking. "Gross. Don't do that while I'm around."


End file.
